Di Maria Compounds Manchester United’s Injury Woes
Manchester United’s £60m summer signing, Angel Di Maria seems to have compounded the injury woes of the Louis van Gaal led side, after pictures of him applying ice packs on his right thigh emanated. The former Real Madrid player made way for Ashley Young n the 76th minute of the 2-2 draw against West Bromwich Albion on Monday night. Now, the player would join Antonio Valencia, Patrick McNair, Johnny Evans and Jesse Lingard on the sidelines for Manchester United. This would represent a massive setback for Louis Van Gaal as Di Maria has become an important figure in Manchester United’s quest for resurgence and claiming the English premier League title. Di Maria only arrived Manchester United this summer and has established himself as a mercurial player for United already.
The picture showing Di Maria padding his right thigh with ice packs is so much indicative of a groin injury which may take a minimum of two weeks before it totally heals. Therefore the possibility of not having Angel Di Maria in the Manchester United team to face fierce rivals, Chelsea this weekend looms and Louis van Gaal should be worried about this situation. Di Maria who is in contention for the signing of the summer has had goals and assists in this season’s campaign and many Manchester United faithful would really depend on him to bring Manchester United back into reckoning domestically and in Europe. As official announcements have not been made about Di Maria’s injury, many United supporters would pray for speedy recovery and would hope to see the player line up against Chelsea next weekend for United. The 26-year-old winger has netted thrice for Manchester United in 6 appearances this season, but has also created 16 chances for his teammates. While other players like Ashley Young, Adnan Januzaj and Juan Mata are available for selection, none of them has been in impressive form lately.
Di Maria alongside Mesut Ozil and Cristiano Ronaldo formed very potent attacking force at Real Madrid and he scored a total of 22 goals in 124 appearances for the Spanish heavyweights, before moving to Manchester United in the summer. For Argentina, Di Maria has netted 16 times for the U-20, U-23 and the senior national team in 72 appearances all together. An important member of the Argentina squad that got to the finals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup held in Brazil, though he missed the final against Germany through injury. Before then, he had been a member of the 2008 set at the U-23 level that won the Beijing Olympic Gold Medal alongside Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano, who now play for Juventus and Barcelona respectively. Di Maria has been handed the mythical number 7 jersey at Manchester United, previously worn by former teammate at Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham and Eric Cantona, which confirms how highly rated he is at Manchester United.
United drew 2-2 against West Bromwich Albion on Monday thanks to a late equalizer in the 87th minute from new signing Daley Blind. With that, Manchester United occupy the 6th position on the EPL log with 12 points from 8 games, 10 points adrift the league leaders Chelsea, who the Louis Van Gaal side face next weekend. Di Maria’s presence in that game against Chelsea would hand not only an injury boost but also some psychological and morale boost for the Red Devils.